An information gathering support system is disclosed in the Japanese Patent No. 3359781 (will be referred to as “Patent document 1” hereunder). This system is to transfer various kinds of information such as image information to a server. That is, a circumstance where information has been acquired is captured as image information by an electronic camera or digital video camera and transferred by the portable terminal to the server.
A surveillance system and the like using a portable telephone is disclosed in the Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2002-247223 (will be referred to as “Patent document 2” hereunder). This system is activated in response to an emergency such as invasion into a room under surveillance to capture the invasion for evidence maintenance and early reaction. The surveillance system uses a portable telephone a person owns and carries on, transfers surveillance data including voice to a surveillance center via a public telephone network. Having linkage with the surveillance center, the system keeps the individual person under surveillance for safety.
Further, a surveillance system using a portable telephone is disclosed in the Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2004-133871 (will be referred to as “Patent document 3” hereunder). This system uses a personal digital assistant provided with a camera and connectable to the Internet and accesses an image data base to and from which image data is sent and received over the Internet. A service provider or user can handle a large volume of image data on the real-time basis by using the personal digital assistant with a camera as an information gathering unit.